Fight against the universe
by rakefet
Summary: Damian wakes up and he doesn't know where he is. the fight against the new 52 starts here! Snippet: "Batman doesn't cry. But he was never going to be Batman." no paring


When Damian woke up he did not know where he is.  
It took him a minute to realize he's in the bat-cave, but something was different about it, and at first he didn't know what.  
Than he saw the glass case with his uniform inside, right beside Jason's, and he knew… he knew something- something was wrong but he just couldn't tell what. The knowledge, the memory was right there- just out of reach. It was kind of annoying really, like a wobbling tooth in his mind.

He stared at the glass case and then he saw his father, standing right there with his face to the case. But He wasn't exactly there; he wasn't completely corporal (or is it _him _that isn't there?)  
Bruce's back was turned to him, his face hidden, but Damian could have sworn that he saw his father's shoulders shaking, as if…as if he was crying. But that's impossible, his father is Batman- and Batman doesn't cry.

"Father? Father what's going on?"

He blinked, and Batman was gone.  
The cave was empty again (or -was that Titus at the corner of his eye?) Damian turned and now in the middle of the cave stood Dick as incorporeal as Bruce was before. But he's never seen Dick like that- his mask was off and he was yelling, tears flowing down his face. He was yelling at the top of his lunges but Damian couldn't hear a thing.

"Grayson! **Grayson I demand an explanation****!**" Damian shouted. Nightwing walked towards him- "Grayson?! Dick…" and right through him, as if he wasn't there at all (was he there at all?) and Dick was gone, leaving no sign or trace he was ever there.

"Someone! Dick! Please!"

-"they can't hear you." he turned to face the speaker. It was a girl. A girl in a dark mask dressed in purple (_eggplant_ corrected a part of him that wasn't there moments ago). She seemed more solid, more real than Dick or Bruce have.

"What do you mean? Who are you?" he asked.

"ohh, it will come back to you. Any minute now…" she said softly and smiled. But her face was covered with the mask. How did he know she was smiling when he hasn't seen her face? How did he know what her smile looked like, how it shined the whole room and how it made her blond hair look like the sun, how did he know she _had_ blond hair and-

"Spoiler."

She was Spoiler. She was Stephanie Brown. She was Robin. She was Batgirl. She was annoying and unprofessional and wonderful and fun and-  
and she taught him how to smile and laugh and-and how did he forget her?

_How could he forget her?_

"I'm dead, aren't I?"

And Stephanie removed her mask and nodded.

And it hit him. Stronger than any punch he ever got.  
He was dead. He was eleven and he was dead and it wasn't fair. It wasn't fair.  
So he cried.  
Because he was no longer the cold hearted child assassin, and he wasn't the heir to the demons head, and he wasn't the son of the bat.  
He was never going to be the head of the league of assassins. He was never going to be part of the justice league.

And Batman doesn't cry.  
But he was never going to be Batman.  
So he cried.  
Because his mother let him die. And because he let his father down. And because he was eleven and wasn't ready to not be any more.  
And when Stephanie wrapped her arms around him he didn't push her back like he would have done a year ago. He held on to her and let his tears flow.

He didn't know how long they stayed like that. It could have been minutes, hours, days even (did time even matter here?)  
Eventually he calmed down.  
"What is *hic* this place? Is this death? But*hic*but you aren't dead!" he said at last, ignoring completely the fact the till not so long ago he didn't even remember she existed.

"no," said Stephanie "I'm not dead. This place… it's, as far as we can tell, somewhere between the universes. It's-"

"everywhere. And nowhere at all." And into the cave stepped a second figure, an Asian girl dressed all in black.  
And now he remembered black bat.  
Cassandra Cain.  
The one who is all.  
This time the memories didn't hit him like a ton of bricks- they flowed out naturally, like fading mist. He knew there were more memories, but they would come too- in time.

"Everywhere? Nowhere?" he didn't understand.

"Something is wrong with the universe. Something big. We don't know what it is but it's hurting people- changing them. And those it can't change- it spits out, leaving us here to rot." Explained Stephanie.

"We are trying to find solution. Fight back." Add Cassandra.

"there are more of us? More people here?" he asked.

"Yes, we're kind of have this la 'resistance thing going on. So what do you say- want to fight the universe?"


End file.
